Spoiled: Organic and Local Is So 2008 | Mother Jones

Our way of producing food and feeding people has to change. Not many who look at food production and distribution doubt that. The UN Agriculture Assessment says it pretty succinctly: "business as usual is not an option." What, then, is to be done? Good article here by Paul Roberts provides his two cents.

Town Green - In Connecticut, Turning Cow Manure Into a Growth Industry - NYTimes.com

Continuing on that cow manure theme...

Op-Ed Contributor - Yellow Is the New Green - NYTimes.com

Human and animal waste are vastly underused sources of nutrients for agricultural production. Yet globally prices of fertilizers, nitrogen and phosphorus in particular, have been skyrocketting. Phosphorus supplies are finite, and we'll soon start hitting the wall with our phosphorus supplies. The sooner we start figuring out how to recycle wastes on a large scale for use in agriculture, both human and animal wastes, the better.

Crop Scientists Say Biotechnology Seed Companies Are Thwarting Research - NYTimes.com

This is a very strong statement from a community that is not known for its political engagement -- university researchers. Things have to be pretty bad for them to speak out. Of course, the stifling of research by biotechnology companies has been going on for decades, so it's about time the scientific community made a fuss.

Newly Poor Swell Lines at Food Banks Nationwide - NYTimes.com

New Yorkers Try Composting With Worms - NYTimes.com

One step at a time, connecting the cycles that power the ecosystems that feed us.

In eat local movement, Cuba is years ahead | Environment | Reuters

Texas Ranchers and Farmers Struggle in Drought - NYTimes.com

Next year floods? Hurricanes? The uncertainty of distribution and timing of climate change impacts will make adaptation to these extreme climatic variations very, very difficult.

Food for the next administration

Beyond the useful resources on the website with respect to food and farming in the greater New York City area is a link to a great panel presentation on US food policy. The speakers featured are: Mark Ritchie, Judith Redmond, Michael Berwick and Michael Pollan.

Sustainable Food Monitor | Growing Better Global Food Policy

How Meat Contributes to Global Warming: Scientific American

By Nathan Fiala, an economics PhD student.

Home Work - Perusing the Seed Catalogs, Feeling Dizzy With Possibility - NYTimes.com

in maine, in the middle of a snowy white winter, the colors and imagined smells and flavors in seed catalogs are an absolutely indescribable delight.

Blog: Living on Food Stamps - CNN.com

A blog to watch over the next month. The CNN reporter writing the blog, Sean Callebs, is going to try to feed himself on $176 for the entire next month. $176 is the amount of food assistance that the federal government would give a single individual through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program -- formerly known as food stamps.

IBM and food miles?

Check out the frozen chicken video posted on IBMs "Smarter Planet" blog:

A Smarter Planet: Food for Thought

as well as their background pages.

Obamas Hire Chef From Chicago - NYTimes.com

The Obama's chef from home focuses on local and healthy food. Does he avoid GMOs?

Obamas Hire Chef From Chicago - NYTimes.com

Guest Column: A Low-Tech Treatment for Bee Plague - Olivia Judson Blog - NYTimes.com

Guest Column: A Low-Tech Treatment for Bee Plague - Olivia Judson Blog - NYTimes.com

the other side of the food crisis coin.

Ronkh Journal - West African Villagers Stake Their Fortunes on the Future Price of Rice - NYTimes.com

This article comes on a day when world food leaders are meeting in Madrid for a high-level meeting on global food security, following up the June 2008 summit held at the FAO in Rome.

Chuck Hassebrook as Deputy Secretary of USDA? A great idea!

Who Will Vilsack Name Deputy Secretary at USDA? | Daily Yonder | Keep It Rural

Food needs 'fundamental rethink'

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Food needs 'fundamental rethink'

(the following are some short excerpts from the much longer article by Mark Kinver. it's well worth reading the whole article.)

A sustainable global food system in the 21st Century needs to be built on a series of "new fundamentals", according to leading food expert, Professor Tim Lang:

• Oil and energy: "We have an entirely oil-based food economy, and yet oil is running out. The impact of that on agriculture is one of the drivers of the volatility in the world food commodity markets."
• Water scarcity: "One of the key things that I have been pushing is to get the UK government to start auditing food by water," Professor Lang said, adding that 50% of the UK's vegetables are imported, many from water-stressed nations.
• Biodiversity: "Biodiversity must not just be protected, it must be replaced and enhanced; but that is going to require a very different way growing food and using the land."
• Urbanisation: "Probably the most important thing within the social sphere. More people now live in towns than in the countryside. In which case, where do they get their food?"

Professor Lang said that in order to feed a projected nine billion people by 2050, policymakers and scientists face a fundamental challenge: how can food systems work with the planet and biodiversity, rather than raiding and pillaging it?

"We are going to have to get biodiversity into gardens and fields, and then eat it."

"We have to do this rather than saying that biodiversity is what is on the edge of the field or just outside my garden."